{"id":9311,"date":"2014-12-17T15:26:52","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T20:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=9311"},"modified":"2015-01-21T18:05:21","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T23:05:21","slug":"aurora-residents-latest-bestseller-provides-food-for-thought-and-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-residents-latest-bestseller-provides-food-for-thought-and-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora resident\u2019s latest bestseller provides food for thought \u2013 and Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a generational gap today in how people remember the holidays, according to Aurora\u2019s Janet Matthews.<\/p>\n

For those who grew up in the 1950s or 60s, Christmas followed a certain path. Presents were opened, you would go outside to find your friends, compare a few notes on how good Santa was to you, and then you would grab your toboggan, lace up your skates, and have a few hours of fun while waiting for the Christmas feast to unfold. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I don\u2019t think it happens in the same way,\u201d says Ms. Matthews. \u201cPeople are too busy with their digital toys and devices. There was a certain simplicity about it all, a certain innocent simplicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, at the end of the day, some things remain the same. No matter how complicated things get, there are occasionally universal themes and experiences surrounding the holiday season, and these are what Ms. Matthews is after.<\/p>\n

Currently on the national bestseller list, Ms. Matthews is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas in Canada \u2013 101 Stories about the Joy and Wonder of the Holidays. The anthology series brings together holiday stories from a wide variety of authors, and even first time authors from across York Region, and Canada, along with the recollections of expat Canadians and former residents. <\/p>\n

Ms. Matthews began her search for the quintessential holiday story earlier this year when the Greater Toronto Area was still recovering from the pre-Christmas ice storm. At the time, she mused the unique and unexpected experiences stemming from the ice storm would, if nothing else, be fertile ground for interesting stories of coming together. And she was right. <\/p>\n

\u201cI liken it to Ghostbusters where the girl puts her hand on the button and says, \u2018We got one!\u2019\u201d says Ms. Matthews with a laugh, of the hundreds of submissions that came in. There are those moments where you just know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Matthews was able to let out her inner-Janine when she received a submission from a then 14-year-old girl called Alexia, hailing from the north end of Toronto. She relayed a story how, like so many last December, her house went dark. At the time, she didn\u2019t think much of it, didn\u2019t want to deal with it, and went back to bed hoping the power would be back on when she woke up. No such luck. <\/p>\n

As the hours went by, the more serious she believed the situation, but after several hours, her house was suddenly one of only six on her entire block that had power restored.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer parents opened their home to everybody around them to come in, warm up, have a hot shower, share a hot meal, recharge their cell phones and do what they needed to do,\u201d says Ms. Matthews, adding power was still not restored by Christmas Eve and, by then, 15 people were sharing their house making a bed out of just about any surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe gave up her bed to a couple that hadn\u2019t had a warm night\u2019s sleep the whole week and slept on the floor between her sister and a girlfriend,\u201d Ms. Matthews continues. \u201cIn the morning, she got up and said it was the most extraordinary experience because there were four separate families there and they all brought their kids, their presents, and the kids were all worried Santa wouldn\u2019t find them. But, Santa did find them. Their parents all made a community breakfast and kids of all ages opened their presents together and shared their Christmas. She said it was absolutely extraordinary and I was moved to tears the first time I saw it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Individual submissions for this anthology, which includes a story from Aurora resident Julia Lucas, hit all the right marks for the Chicken Soup series. A story has to touch the heart, deliver a message of hope or inspiration, or strike an emotional chord.<\/p>\n

Some of the most compelling stories for Ms. Matthews, she said, were those about individuals who had \u201cgone beyond themselves\u201d to participate in the spirit of giving, whether putting a box together anonymously for a family who was struggling, or finding creative ways of giving back.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have ice storm refugees around you, you are giving,\u201d she says. \u201cWhether it is that family who has nothing, so you stretch yourselves for them so they can have a Christmas, you\u2019re giving. When we experience Christmas from that perspective of what can we give, how can we love, how can we share, we\u2019re going to have a better experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas in Canada \u2013 101 Stories about the Joy and Wonder of the Holidays is available now through Chapters, Indigo, and all major book retailers.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a generational gap today in how people remember the holidays, according to Aurora\u2019s Janet Matthews.<\/p>\n

For those who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2qb","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 20:18:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/2014-12-18-05.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}